polysyndeton

Borrowed from Medieval Latin polysyndeton, itself from Byzantine Greek πολυσύνδετον (polusúndeton, literally “many connected”).

• IPA^(key): /pɒlɪˈsɪndɪtɒn/

• Audio (Southern England)

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polysyndeton (countable and uncountable, plural polysyndetons or polysyndeta)

1. (rhetoric) The use of many conjunctions to achieve an overwhelming effect in a sentence.
   • 1835, L[arret] Langley, A Manual of the Figures of Rhetoric, […], Doncaster: Printed by C. White, Baxter-Gate, →OCLC, page 53:

     In Polysyndeton conjunctions flow,
     And every word its copulative will shew.

   • 2002, Robert Baird Shuman, editor, Great American Writers: Twentieth Century, Marshall Cavendish, →ISBN, page 668:

     [Hemingway] often employs a variety of polysyndeton—a frequent use of conjunctions, most notably “and”—linking elements in a sentence together in a way that implies all parts are of equal importance, while in fact one unit of the series may be much more significant than the others.

• asyndeton